Long ago, I went to a bar in Dublin that was a converted nunnery. The upstairs was the open area of the chapel and downstairs each of the nun's cells had been turned into cozy drinking booths, with padded benches and a central table. Neon lights, drugs and rock music (this was 1969 Sitting and drinking in what was a solitary room for a dedicated nun. It was pretty sacrilegious and disrespectful, but.....I think that was the point.

Kind of the same titillating sensation of being in a famous prison, I suppose.

In the 90s they turned the notorious Charles St. jail (http://tinyurl.com/37hvcma) in Boston into a luxury hotel.

It's an impressive granite building overlooking the Charles River. It's kind of funny that at one time it didn't bother anyone to allocate such a *prime* location to neer-do-wells. Who've since been relocated to an ungodly modern construction in a wasteland at the intersection of a highway and some on-ramps, that's much harder for visitors to get to.

I think people tend to append the word "notorious" to the former jail for several reasons.

Its prisoners (from Wiki): "Over the years, the jail has housed a number of famous inmates including James Michael Curley, Malcolm X, Sacco and Vanzetti, suffragists imprisoned for protests when President Woodrow Wilson visited Boston in 1919, and World War II prisoners of war from the German submarines U-234 and U-873. The commanding officer of the latter U-boat, who died in the jail, was the brother of Operation Paperclip rocket scientist Ernst Steinhoff."

It's an imposing structure at the foot of Beacon Hill, abutting Mass General Hospital, almost on the banks of the Charles River, which is a very swanky area, so it stands out. Even moreso because it was surrounded by a high brick wall and barbed wire. It housed people awaiting trial as well as some after they were convicted, and also served as the city's drunk tank. I believe there were serious prisoner riots there in the 70s.

Here's a good short piece about how wretched the conditions had become over time inside the place (http://tinyurl.com/bzr9odl) I hadn't been aware of this, but early in its history they carried out a number of capital executions (hanging) in its courtyard. A fed judge finally ordered it shut down as (he said) just being locked up there constituted cruel and unusual punishment.

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